Monday, October 29, 2012

Working for Him

I got into SS yesterday morning in time to study my lesson, which I had not done the night before, and it was on serving others & how Jesus had served His disciples by washing their feet. This made for some good laughs because I tried to talk the kids into rubbing my aching feet & washing them. Of course they refused and made all kind of comments. Then we got down to the seriousness of the lesson. I explained Jesus was serving His servants and in turn wants us to serve others. Perfect story for the ending of the Trunk or Treat weekend. I explained as a church we were serving our community the night before. People got a hot meal, entertainment and hopefully they felt the love of Jesus thru our friendliness & welcoming attitudes. I know all of those who volunteered were exhausted by the time we locked the doors Sat. night but I do hope you feel good about the work you did for our heavenly Father. Everyone from the kitchen, bake sale, those poor guys on the other side of the church who could not see the ballgames, those who drove the hayrides, people who cleaned up, to trunks & those who dressed up, to the men still taking down signs yesterday, hauling off trash this morning & returning equipment today, you all went above and beyond serving your community & I know one day you'll receive a special blessing for your dedication. I was so proud of our youth! I know many of them have worked before but the younger youth who were use to running around playing & getting candy were so dedicated to their jobs that night. I am so glad they have hearts willing to serve God. I even had a sweet elementary child beg to work a game. She wanted to help & I believe she stayed on a game the whole night! Sometimes kids can teach us so much! LOL I wish I could figure out how to post pics on here!!

Ok now to kids stuff! No church Wed. night. Sunday, Nov. 4th is "Orphan Sunday" and Jason & Lauren Ayres have special music and a special message for us so we will not have children's church. I know this message will be a blessing to those who hear it. Starting Nov. 11th every Sunday during children's church the kids will be working on the Christmas program. I still do not know what we are doing but I'll have something in the works by then. I am pretty sure your household is like mine and from Trunk or Treat weekend on it is full speed ahead until the end of the year. Let's try to stay focused on God while we are doing the other 100 things we need to do!

One last thing...Wed. night is halloween and I know it can be a controversial holiday for many Christians. Do we partake or not? In my opinion a holiday is what you make of it. You can chose to do the gore & devilish stuff or you could make it more about celebrating the harvest of fall. If you are looking for something more Christian to do, go to www.ministry-to-children.com & you'll see the pumpkin prayer. We did this prayer in children's church & I know your child would have so much fun at home carving the pumpkin as they do this prayer. Hopefully they will grow up remembering God removes our sin like we remove the gunk from the inside of the pumpkin. Have a great week & stay warm!

P.S. Arlo I know you are reading this & you better be glad you live so far off because I know several boys in a certain youth group who plan on going ROLLIN, ROLLIN, ROLLIN!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Judgement House

I had to share what I experienced last night. First, I want to give 12th St. a big thank you for what they do each yr. So many people come thru their doors for the Judgement house and I know lives are being changed by this outreach! I was suppose to have been at church last night pulling out trunk or treat stuff from upstairs but the opportunity worked out for me to go to the Judgement house and I am so thankful I did. I got to church a little late & never saw how many kids loaded up into the van or cars & I rode by myself to 12th St. so I was later than everyone else getting there. Once we all get inside and I see sooo many youth I was in AWE! 27 YOUTH and 11 adults.....38! Now I know that is no big deal to some but I can rem back several yrs ago when I went w/ the youth the 1st time to the Judgement house and we might of only had 10 of us youth & adults. I could barely keep from crying when those numbers hit me because I just rem how hard it was back we were trying to grow the youth & children's dept ( not that we have stopped trying now). God has been so good to us and He just keeps reminding me that if we are faithful and do His work then He will bless us. I am not going to give the story away but at the end God comes up to you and touches your shoulder and say something to each person there. I almost passed out when he touched me. His words were,"do not worry". Did he hit the nail on the head. I worry about everything and I know I shouldn't. Coincidence? I think not!

I also wanted to say how blessed we are at WBBC to have  a preacher wants to go be involved in youth and kid activities. Joey went w/ us. Then to have parents who are just as excited about being at the Judgement house as the kids are. It is a wonderful thing. Arlo & Jennie did a great job last night guiding kids and showing them love. They are doing a great job leading this group! It was awesome to have some youth & adult visitors with us. I love how God makes things work out and i am so glad He worked it out for me to go last night. BIG THANK YOU to Katie & Teresa for working w/ the kids last night. I appreciate all you do!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Blessings Abound

As I went to church yesterday I had feelings of worry about the soup lunch. I wanted this lunch to be put on my the children's dept & I think everyone knows by now that there is so many less kids now since the large group moved up to youth. Well less kids means less parents to cook so I was thinking we might not have enough pots of soup to feed the church family. To my surprise what I had planned in my head had almost been doubled on the table. I also came down from SS & everything had been done. The ladies made sure everything was set to go. I go to preaching & leave as soon as I hear the last amen, making a mad dash to the fellowship hall to make sure we are a go & what do I see but ladies already in there working. Our church is so blessed by people willing to work! I think I say this all the time but I work w/ parents who are willing to do whatever whenever! Such blessings! Then to top it off I thought we made over $300.00 but instead it was over $500.00. $500 to buy coats for needy kids! That is so awesome! My tentative plans are to take the 5th grade girls w/ me the 2nd Sat. in Nov. to buy up all the coats. I can't wait! I also had a pretty full SS class, a chance to pray with a sweet boy and to sit with my brother in church before he preached. We enjoyed making some quiet fun of each other while we were singing! lol  A day full of blessings that only come from the Lord above!

This Wed. night Katie Smith will lead the kids in a mission lesson. Please make sure your kids are there. All missions fields are important when it comes to sharing the Word of God and showing Christian love whether it be overseas or work we do right in our on community and I want our kids to be learning all about that!

Saturday night is Trunk or Treat. Remember if you are doing a car, game, inflatable or working in the kitchen you need to be at church by 4:00. We need to be set up & ready to eat at 4:30, done by 5:30 so we are ready to welcome visitors at 6:00. There will plenty to do Friday night at the church so I would love anyones help. Don't forget to bring bake sale items. You can start dropping them off Fri. night. All proceeds from the bake sale will go towards the youths' Winter Extreme trip. I am going to ask that you specifically pray for Trunk or Treat. Pray that God brings us people who are in need of a church home & people who are lost. Pray that God places the right person in those peoples path that is not afraid to strike up a conversation and find out what that person needs. Pray for kindness & love to be on all our minds & hearts as we welcome in the community. Pray that our Christian light shines thru. Pray for good weather and for each family that we know God is going to send us Sat. night. I know I ramble & go on way to long but yall know how I am by now. Have a great week and enjoy each & every moment!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Seasons of Change

 I joked w/ Joey about the time we got out of church yesterday because during children's church I went thru my lesson, my game, I improvised and made my self part of the game & let the kids wrap me in toilet paper, played keep away, fell on the ground in a skirt,  busted a child in the eye & sweated so much my hair curled up but I understand it was an important message so I guess I'll let Joey slide but I was to the point of thinking I was going to need to order pizza & feed the kids lunch!! I spoke to the kids about each season & how they are all different. We talked about seasons we do not like & seasons we love. I love fall & of course the kids loved summer. The point of the lesson was just like the seasons change so does our life. Today you might be really down, nothing seems to be going your way just like the winter, cold, dreary, gloomy but hold on to God because spring is coming & it warms up, we feel better, there is new growth & things seem brighter. As Christians, we will have ups and downs but God is not like the seasons. He never changes nor does He ever leave you. If you are in a bad place today just pray about it & remember a new season is coming.

I was thrilled to see one of my original kids back at church yesterday w/ her Mom & cousin. I was also excited to meet a sweet lady who I have been talking on the phone with & finally got to put a face w/ a voice. Jenny Clough & the choir rocked that last song! I just felt so much excitement in God's house. I hope you did too!

I had a great time at the women's get together last night. I really love the fact that we have so many awesome women who are willing to reach out & encourage each other. I found out we had lots of surprise pregnancies in the group, lots of moms w/ large age differences in their kids, learned a potty song for Jack & that we have some unbelievable dessert cooks at WBBC! I just finished chocolate cake & a chocolate oatmeal cookie for breakfast! I always doubt myself before I go somewhere because I am always thinking I have this I need to do, or that I need to do & honestly I felt like my cold was coming back yesterday but I am so glad I went ahead & stuck w/ my plans of coming to the fellowship. I can never think of a time that God has not blessed me when I have done something church related.

Now on to the kid stuff:
Big City Studio will be in production this Wed. night.
Remember Sunday is the soup lunch for donations
Wed. Oct. 24 will be missions night for the kids. Katie Smith will be teaching. She has some new material & is very excited about it. That is the week before Halloween so I promised the kids a treat. Have I mentioned how I am loving these girls who help me on Wed. night? It is so great to see them step up & do whatever when ever! Pray for our children's dept. We had a lot of kids move up to youth & it has been hard to adjust to so many less kids (or at least it is hard for me to adjust) Pray that God leads us to the places to reach children, pray that we open to new opportunities & ideas and that everything we do is what God wants us to do. I want a to see our church overflowing w/ kids & families! I am done rambling! Have a blessed week!

Monday, October 8, 2012

What is Your Legacy Gonna Be?

Me and the twins were coming home Friday night from visiting the men cooking the butts & ribs. I was talking about how great it was for them to be donating their time trying to make the Winter Extreme trip a little cheaper for the youth. One of my boys, not going to say the name but the one who has lawyer & political aspirations because he is always right and likes to argue, questioned what I wanted my legacy to be. Who knows where this thought came from but he had a definite answer on his own legacy. He wanted to be remembered as RICH. RICH....what kind of legacy is that? I thought ok this is a teaching moment so going to try and make him understand that he was not choosing well! He is the arguer & thinks he is always correct so my teaching did not go very far. I explained that when we leave this earth I sure would want someone to remember something more about me than whether I had money or not. I explained that it is great to be rich but there has to be more to a person than just that. I would hope if I was blessed with alot of money I would donate to charities, give to those in need, really make a difference in someone else's life. I think of people who have passed and think of the people they influenced, lives they changed and examples they set. I can name a few of those from my own church. I think it would be great to leave this world and someone say that person is the reason I met Jesus and was saved, or that person was always kind to me and made me feel welcomed or that person showed me by example how to overcome something. Of course the topic left me thinking about my own legacy or lack of a legacy is more like it. What do you think your legacy will be when you leave this earth? Are people going to remember you because you were rich or poor? Are they going to remember that you were the only person who ever reached out to them and invited them to church? Are they going to remember how loving you were or are they going to remember that you acted better than others? Are they going to remember that you were a devoted wife or husband or are they going to remember you as a cheater. Are they going to remember how you always took care of your children or put yourself before all others? Are they going to remember the work you did for God or are they going to remember you as a church divider? Are they going to remember you as a Christian?

I wanted to give a big thank you for all the people who helped w/ the butts & ribs. As a parent of  youth I appreciate all who helped and bought because it will make the trip more affordable. I received a call earlier today from a church visitor who said they were the best she had ever tasted. Remember you can still purchase a coupon book from a youth and I believe they are still selling knives. Please remember the the childrens' dept is hosting a donation only soup & chili lunch on Sunday Oct. 21, right after preaching. All proceeds will go to buying coats for needy children. "Big City Studio" will be in production this Wed. night even though there is a business meeting. I hope to see all our kids there! Remember that Shay has a sign up sheet on the hall bulletin board for those who want to decorate their trunks. See Alicia if you can make chili for the trunk or treat. I have the sign up sheet for the games. October is a busy month so don't just sit there...get up and do something!!(That was said with love). One last thing...big WAY TO GO GIRL to Charity Coley. You put your fears aside & got on the stage and sang your heart out. You did great & should be so proud of your self!! have a great week everyone!!!

Monday, October 1, 2012

EXCITEMENT IN THE CHURCH

 It seemed everyone was so excited to be at church yesterday. It started in Sunday school for me. The kids were so pumped up & were so excited to be there. We were talking about the fall schedule & what all the kids had going on & one of the Coley girls said we haven't done a play in a while. I explained I am trying to come up w/ something for Christmas & she was so excited... I thought she was going to bust thru the roof! That makes me so happy when kids get excited about doing church stuff! Then I got into preaching & boom. Seemed like such a buzz going around. I just sat on the pew for a minute & noticed how happy & excited people seemed to be at church. Arlo spoke about all the youth events coming up & IDK about everyone else but that just gets me even more excited. I am so thrilled to see the young people going & doing, building bonds together that I hope will last a lifetime. Wouldn't it be awesome for some of these kids to grow up and be workers for our Lord & be able to fall back on each other for resourses & encouragement. I know as a mom I should be gloom and doom about the boys growing up but I am seriously excited about how God is going to work in their lives and see how he will work in their friends lives. I thought to myself that I have been in other churches (not all churches) and sometimes gotten the feeling that those people were made to be there, maybe by a spouse, parents or obligation. It is so great to sit back and know that you are in God's house with people who truly want to be there. God has really blessed our church & I just pray the devil doesn't find his way in! Then there was the trunk or treat meeting. I know every yr we have a great turn out for people to help but it just seemed like people kept coming into the meeting. It is great to be at a church were people want to help & want to reach out to the community. Just in case you do not know it I LOVE my church! God's spirit is so strong at WBBC and I love the excitement that encourages! I know..enough with all of the babbling Kristi!

Wednesday night is "Big City" so bring the kids & bring a visitor! I know Arlo will still take some butt & rib orders so if you need one let him know. Pray for the youth as the go see "Unconditional" Wed. night. The soup lunch has been changed to Oct 21st. I hope everyone supports this mission project. We hope to buy lots of coats for the mission center.

Trunk or Treat! People will be hitting you up to make chili, do your trunk & for the bake sale. Be ready to YES I would love to do that! Bake sale money raised will go towards the youths Winter Extreme trip.

There will be so much going on from now to Christmas so please pray about where & how you can help. I hope you all enjoy the 1st day of October and come back to church Wed. night with excitement!